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Steve Jones' last season with the Lions will be the Lions' last season with the NEAC. |
The Capital Athletic Conference continued to reshape itself with the announcement that Penn State-Harrisburg will join the conference in 2013-14. The Lions are the third school scheduled to join the CAC that season, along with Christopher Newport and Southern Virginia.
"We are pleased to welcome Penn State-Harrisburg to the Capital Athletic Conference, and look forward to competing with their teams in the broad range of sports represented in the CAC," said George Waldner, York (Pa.) president and chair of the CAC Presidents Council.
The CAC will have seven full member institutions in the 2012-13 academic year – Frostburg State, Marymount, Mary Washington, Salisbury, St. Mary’s (Md.), Wesley and York (Pa.).
In 2013-14 Christopher Newport will move from the USA South Athletic Conference to the CAC. Southern Virginia, which is scheduled to be in its second year of NCAA Division III provisional membership, will also join the CAC that year. Southern Virginia will compete as an independent in its first year of provisional membership starting this fall.
Christopher Newport and Penn State-Harrisburg will be immediately eligible for conference championships and NCAA Division III Tournament opportunities. Southern Virginia will become eligible to compete in CAC playoffs in 2014-15.
"The Capital Athletic Conference has now added three solid academic and athletic institutions to its membership, beginning in 2013-14," said Commissioner Tom Byrnes.
Penn State-Harrisburg became a full member of NCAA Division III in 2010 and has been a member of the North East Athletic Conference (NEAC) since 2007. The Lions, who sponsor 12 varsity sports but have plans to add more in the next few years, have finished second in the NEAC’s Commissioner’s Cup in each of the past two seasons.
The Lions’ departure from the NEAC will leave with 11 teams for men’s basketball and 13 for women’s basketball in 2013-14. In men’s basketball alone, 11 schools have left or joined the conference since the start of the 2008-2009 academic year.